| 摘要 |
A system and method are provided for maintaining a universal phonebook in a Home Network telephone system. The universal phonebook system comprises a gateway to transceive calls via external communication medium and to act as a bridge between the external communication medium and a plurality of endpoint communications devices, which are typically telephones but can also be fax machines, video-phones, modems, or the like. The gateway also maintains a universal phonebook that is accessible to all of the plurality of endpoints. The gateway establishes an out-of-band control channel between the gateway and each endpoint accessing the universal phonebook. The gateway transceives calls on external communication medium that communicate call information in a format such as voice over cable modem (VoCM), voice over DSL (VoDSL), voice over ATM (VoATM), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), integrated service digital network (ISDN), or plain old telephone service (POTS). The endpoints are connected with the gateway with connection interfaces such as wireless, convention telephone line, AC powerline, or dedicated hardline connections. The universal phonebook stores entries as a number/descriptor pair. The descriptor is an ASCII string with a "who" associated with a number in a way that is meaningful to the user. For example, a descriptor can be a full name, a nickname, an abbreviated name, or a business associated with the number. The descriptors can be retrieved from the UPB and presented to the user by the use of option categories. Examples of option categories include friends, colleagues, business, and personal. Once the user selects an option category, only the entries from that category are presented.
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